Why do science fair projects

Be sure to include the question you were trying to answer your hypothesis , the steps you took to answer that question, your results and any factors that may have influenced your results. Your poster should be visually appealing, but also clear about what you did and why people should care. Stay Connected. Need help getting started on your science fair project? In this video series, a JPL scientist, engineer and educator team up to help you learn how to come up with an idea for a great science fair project and see it through to completion.

Introduction To get started on your science fair project, you'll learn to observe the world around you and ask questions about the things you observe. Get your idea and do some research Observe the world around you and ask questions about the things you observe. Our students used a teacher-created template Appendix 3 to design their projects. The slides were printed out and placed on a trifold board for presentation at the science fair.

In the sections that follow, we illustrate how science fair projects integrate the SEPs and the NOS, through three randomly selected science fair projects by middle school students projects 1 and 3 were each completed individually; project 2 was completed by a pair of students seeking to answer the following questions.

Project 1: What effect does tannic acid in the St. Louis River have on duckweed Lemna minor growth while under stress from motor oil pollution? Abstracts for all three projects are found in Appendices 4, 5, and 6. In the next sections, we use the scientific form of the project to discuss the process students engaged in to complete their projects Koomen et al. As an introduction to the research projects, students 1 listened to former students 8th—12th graders or alumni share their completed projects and experiences, 2 chose a topic of personal interest, and 3 received a template for planning their investigation that builds from the foundation they experienced with the insect investigations.

Former science fair students talked to the middle schoolers about their projects, including what they did, what they learned, and why doing the project was worthwhile for them. They also shared how they took an idea based on their interests to develop an investigation Figure 3. A former student talks about the impact of his science fair experiences on his subsequent career in marine biology. In small groups, students identified five potential science fair topics they were interested in exploring.

Next, they spent a week learning about those five topics, using handheld electronic devices to document links to our learning management system. After students identified a topic of interest, a teacher screened the topic idea for efficacy as a science fair project, and the students received a template for the project Appendix 3 , building on the foundational experience of the insect investigations. SEPs: Asking questions and defining problems. After selecting a topic, students continued to look up background research on their topic for the introduction to their science fair project.

For example, the student author of Project 1 was interested in recent news reports about oil spills and how those spills impacted the growth of aquatic plants like duckweed.

Her background research included information on density of oils, how contaminants like oil are taken up into plants, and the basic biology of duckweed as described in her introduction slide Figure 4 ; note that all student work reproduced in this article is shown in its original form, including some errors and typos. This helped her define the problem and eventually became part of her introduction to the science fair project.

The teacher showed students how to use EasyBib to write citations. In Project 1, all of the student's research helped identify independent variables tannic acid solutions, water type, and motor oil solution and dependent variables percentage change in frond production that could be studied. Louis River with extra tannic acid, duckweed growth will be positively affected when compared to duckweed grown in the St. Louis River control without tannic water. NOS: Science addresses questions about the natural and material world.

Science fair projects require a testable question that leads to a scientific investigation or in engineering topics the definition of a problem, typically generated by something students have observed or wondered about. In our experience, students tend to choose projects that require easily accessible materials. Examples include distilled water and motor oil Project 1 ; edible insects ordered online and Google Forms survey tools Project 2 ; and Petri dishes, pipettes, and an incubator from the school science lab Project 3.

As in the NOS matrix performance expectations, these student questions were defined by the constraints of available materials and the middle school science background to answer questions about the natural and material world and were limited to explanations that rely on observation and empirical evidence NGSS Lead States, , appendix H. SEPs: Planning and carrying out an investigation. Students developed the rationale detailing why their study was important as they determined independent, dependent, and control variables.

NOS: Science investigations use a variety of methods. The students who surveyed the effect of gender on willingness to eat edible insects Project 2 used the social science practice of collecting participant consent forms. The students working with live organisms to test the effects of artificial sweeteners on bacteria Project 3 adhered to safety guidelines and used statistical tests like analysis of variance ANOVA to evaluate their results.

SEPs: Developing and using models. Drawing from our previous work modeling the growth and development of monarchs through graphs, students developed a model that represented their research findings. For example, in Project 3, students developed a model Figure 6 to describe the effect of artificial sweeteners on bacteria by hypothesizing that the higher the level of artificial sweetener, the less probiotic bacteria would grow in the agar plate.

Students communicated this model by creating a graph to show the number of bacteria that grew in water, different dilutions of artificial sweetener, different dilutions of sugar, and probiotics — a graph that effectively describes a phenomenon NGSS Lead States, , appendix F.

The graph displayed the evidence of the effect of a variable, the presence of artificial sweeteners, on the system of probiotic bacteria growth in a Petri dish. NOS: Scientific models, laws, mechanisms, and theories explain natural phenomena. As noted above, the students in Project 3 developed a model Figure 6 that described the phenomenon of the effect of artificial sweeteners on bacteria. They hypothesized that there would be less probiotic bacteria with the increase of an artificial sweetener.

SEPs: Using mathematics, information and computer technology, and computational thinking. After students had completed their data collection, they used mathematics, computational thinking, and computer technology to organize the data into tables or graphs, building on prior work with the monarch line graphs. Students chose the appropriate graph to use to display their data.

For example, Project 2 students developed bar graphs to illustrate percentages of each gender willing to try eating insects Figure 7 with error bars representing the variability of the data. A bar graph for data analysis with title, labeled axes, and error bars by a pair of students, from an independent research project.

SEPs: Analyzing and interpreting data. Students created a data collection table and entered the data as they were collecting them. When they were finished collecting data, students converted the table into a graph that included a title and labeled axes.

Building from their prior knowledge and research, they used the BSCS tools to interpret the data by observing patterns, thus supporting the NGSS standard that calls for analyzing and interpreting data to provide evidence for phenomena NGSS Lead States, , appendix F.

In Project 2 Figure 7 , students placed gender on the x -axis and the percentage of people willing to try eating an insect on the y -axis. The template prompts students to think about what phenomena to measure and why, along with describing what they observed. Has your student participated in a science fair? Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.

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